What is more important for Wii U: Strong holiday
or sustained momentum in 2014?

What is more important for Wii U: Strong holiday or sustained momentum in 2014? - Results (84 votes)

Strong holiday sales

15.48% (13 votes)

13

Sustained momentum in 2014

84.52% (71 votes)

71

This poll is now closed.

Last holiday, the Wii U had a pretty solid launch selling 2.25m and two million sellers in New Super Mario Bros U/Nintendo Land. The big problem the Wii U had was that despite the decent launch/holiday, its sales plummeted during the early parts of this year. Many people have their opinions on why this happened, but I personally believe it was due to 3 major things: lack of compelling exclusives, most expensive console on the market, and lack of advertising. The first half of 2013 only had Lego City Undercover+Game & Wario as exclusives and a bunch of ports (many of which were released months earlier on other consoles), the system itself cost $299-349 while the PS3/360 could be found as low as $199, and I didn't even see a single post launch advertisement for Wii U until August of this year. They have slowly but surely fixed these problems in the second half of this year with exclusives like Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Sonic Lost World, Wind Waker HD, Wii Party U, Sonic & Mario Olympics, and Super Mario 3D World, a $50 price cut on the Deluxe model and with the launch of PS4/One it is no longer the most expensive console, also there has been a decent amount of advertising for Wii U going on lately. Sales have been rising but it still hasn't had a huge holiday boost. That brings me to the point of this thread, even if Wii U doesn't see a huge spike and has a modest holiday, it is likely that whatever momentum they create this holiday won't fall off a cliff like it did last year. As of now, the Wii U has a steady stream of quality exclusives early next year, January-Wii Fit U, February-Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Spring-Mario Kart 8 and there are rumors that Super Smash Bros for Wii U will release in the first half of the year. The second half of the year could still have games like Bayonetta 2, Yarn Yoshi, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, X, 3rd Sonic exclusive, and some unannounced possibilities like Wii Sports Club retail version, Mario Party U or Legend of Zelda U. So what do you guys think is more important for Wii U, a strong holiday season this year and a big dropoff next year, or a modest holiday along with steady sales in the early parts of next year?

You would think that one would lead to the other?---If I support the game company, then I won't be supporting the blank DVD business.

#4RetsuZaiZenPosted 12/1/2013 2:20:40 PM

Did you really just call Wii Fit a quality exclusive?---Why do nerdsalways get caught up on the details? http://i.imgur.com/dntQM.gif http://i.imgur.com/9gNcUGM.gif

#5ChrisCanbergPosted 12/1/2013 2:21:50 PM

RetsuZaiZen posted...

Did you really just call Wii Fit a quality exclusive?

Wii Fit is not at all a bad game. It's actually pretty responsive in it's own right.

#6segagamerPosted 12/1/2013 2:25:16 PM

HighOnPhazon posted...

Wall of F-ing text

---Wii U+Xbox One :)NNID: JZimino

#7selfdeztructionPosted 12/2/2013 1:14:10 AM

Solnot posted...

Last holiday, the Wii U had a pretty solid launch selling 2.25m and two million sellers in New Super Mario Bros U/Nintendo Land.

The big problem the Wii U had was that despite the decent launch/holiday, its sales plummeted during the early parts of this year. Many people have their opinions on why this happened, but I personally believe it was due to 3 major things: lack of compelling exclusives, most expensive console on the market, and lack of advertising.

The first half of 2013 only had Lego City Undercover+Game & Wario as exclusives and a bunch of ports (many of which were released months earlier on other consoles), the system itself cost $299-349 while the PS3/360 could be found as low as $199, and I didn't even see a single post launch advertisement for Wii U until August of this year.

They have slowly but surely fixed these problems in the second half of this year with exclusives like Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Sonic Lost World, Wind Waker HD, Wii Party U, Sonic & Mario Olympics, and Super Mario 3D World, a $50 price cut on the Deluxe model and with the launch of PS4/One it is no longer the most expensive console, also there has been a decent amount of advertising for Wii U going on lately.

Sales have been rising but it still hasn't had a huge holiday boost. That brings me to the point of this thread, even if Wii U doesn't see a huge spike and has a modest holiday, it is likely that whatever momentum they create this holiday won't fall off a cliff like it did last year.

As of now, the Wii U has a steady stream of quality exclusives early next year, January-Wii Fit U, February-Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Spring-Mario Kart 8 and there are rumors that Super Smash Bros for Wii U will release in the first half of the year.

The second half of the year could still have games like Bayonetta 2, Yarn Yoshi, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, X, 3rd Sonic exclusive, and some unannounced possibilities like Wii Sports Club retail version, Mario Party U or Legend of Zelda U.

So what do you guys think is more important for Wii U, a strong holiday season this year and a big dropoff next year, or a modest holiday along with steady sales in the early parts of next year?

Fix'd, it needs more sustainable momentum throughout this next year. I've had my Wii U (32GB) since launch, bought 5 retail games the first month & 8 digital games.

I currently have 25 Wii U games (not counting VC games) and so I've actually bought Wii U games at a ratio of 2 per month and I haven't felt like the Wii U is actually lacking in game releases.

Not always. It might get a strong showing but then sales just drop with the gaps between games. It's what we've seen all year with the Japan sales for the WiiU and the Vita.

A consistent release schedule would serve it a lot better in the long run.---[Wubeth Intensifies]

#9lunchbox2042Posted 12/2/2013 1:51:51 AM

A steady barrage of games throughout the first half of next year is more important.

#10DoomsSDPosted 12/2/2013 2:05:35 AM

Just answering the title question- A bit of both, really.

It needs a strong holiday to kick off some sales momentum and then it needs to sustain that. It doesn't need to obliterate PS4/XBox, just needs to do well enough to shake the laughing stock reputation that it has developed in some corners.

Sales will come in time, I think. It won't be just one game that shifts Wii U's, it'll be a roster of strong Nintendo games. Smash, Zelda, Mario Kart along with 3D world which is already out, are worth owning a console for.

People keep coming out with the whole "3D World will save Wii U" type thing any time a first party game drops but I don't think Wii U will be truly strong until ALL the big guns have landed and there's enough games on the system that shift people off the fence.

3rd party games here and there will be nice too, but 3rd are lukewarm at best to Nintendo right now so if they show up, great. If not, bleh.---Well, I suppose it's time to get kidnapped again...http://i.imgur.com/k4HdivZ.gif